Private and Public International Law: Co-Evolution or Alienation?

• Applicant: Dr. Anton Stefan Zimmermann
• Subject Area: Private Law
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 536608751

If a German court decides over a piece of land located in Crimea, is ownership determined according to Ukrainian or Russian law? If German courts wish to question a witness from abroad by video conference, do they need permission from the state of residence? And can a foreign state be sued for damages before German courts if it is accused of torturing someone in violation of human rights? At first glance, these questions concern fundamentally different issues, but from a legal point of view they share one commonality: They touch upon both public international law and private international law. The aim of the project presented here is to explore the interplay between these two legal fields. The project aims to discuss the relationship between public and private international law from an overarching perspective. General inferences regarding the relationship between public and private international law can be drawn from the above-mentioned and other specific problems in private international law. Conversely, shedding light on the relationship between the two fields in general could potentially help in solving new problems arising in private international law. The findings of the research project on the influences of public international law could also call into question previously held certainties in private international law. At the center of the project are two core principles of public and private international law: the sovereignty of states and human rights. There are tensions between these two principles: human rights are individual rights against the state, whereas absolute sovereignty would push back the mandatory nature of human rights. Consequently, the rise of human rights in modern times has resulted in a certain degree of relativisation of state sovereignty in favour of the individual. This paradigm shift is reflected in private international law. For instance, connecting factors are increasingly withdrawn from states’ control (e.g. habitual residence instead of nationality); the right to justice plays a growing role in cross-border proceedings (e.g. cross-border gathering of evidence). The proposed project aims to address these developments and thus contribute to a modern understanding of the relationship between public and private international law.

• DFG Programme: Independent Junior Research Groups